I went through a long period where I thought therapy was making my life worse than it was before I went into therapy. Sure I was miserable, my ability to hold it together at work was falling apart, and I was drinking every night, but overall I was pretty high functionning. Then I started to deal with all my past **** that was getting in the way of making connections to people, and started dredging up all those emotions that I'd suprressed for so long - I started cutting, my drinking got worse, (lousy coping skills) and I finally landed in IP. This all took several years. But it was worth it, because I'm now coming out the other side and am starting to see positive results from the changes I've made in my life as a result of therapy. But the suggestion of trying to contain the amount of time you spend on thinking about therapy is a good one. I had to learn to do this, with my T's help so that I could function between sessions.

Now that I feel better, have gotten sober, and am active in AA, I sometimes feel like I have too my therapy in my life. I have AA, a pdoc, an addictions Dr. and my good old T. Cutting back on T would make a lot of financial sense since I'm paying entirely out of pocket for her, but I know I still have huge attachment issues that I have to deal with. So I'm kind of hoping that I'll only be in therapy for another couple of years, and after that I'll be ready to face life on my own.

--splitimage